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[Jopax]

Critiquing and giving advice for something we can't see isn't really feasible, so you might wanna actually post the drawings you did if you want some feedback on them :V

@others, thanks, was still way better in my head tho XD

[xaritscin]

sketched this during lunch, but it seems my pencil doesnt have enough tone.



part of one of several characters i have been thinking about for "Antherea", my main worldbuilding project. this is Cornellius Stark, grand general of the lupinian division(the wolves) of the "Ministerium Arcanicus", one of many factions in the world.

[xaritscin]

yeah i may post a better version later. i need to find another pencil or something for improving the photo. yeah i forgo the insignias. i was thinking of a more simple uniform but taking in account the story is settled along 1900. i may have to look further on it.

as for the nose. i dunno, i dont usually draw old people, and well, i wanted to give him some presence, so i gave him a large nose and plentifulll beard.

[xaritscin]

here, a more detailed version, oh, and the badges, among some other new stuff

[Cheesecake]

His shoulders are way too low, like they're sloping really steeply.

[xaritscin]

His shoulders are way too low, like they're sloping really steeply.

im bad at drawing bodies. well, at drawing mostly.

[KillerHP]

His head is too weird an small.I over-dithered it too.

[Shook]

Well hey, good on you for giving it a go, you're making progress! I'm thinking it's a canine creature you have going there, the drawing of which i happen to have a few tips for (which are also totally applicable to pixel art, i think), but first a few specific points of critique, spoilered for convenience (and for easy disregarding if you don't want to hear it):

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The foreground legs are positioned nicely, but the background ones seem to go up somewhere into its torso instead of hip/shoulder. On a side view like this, the limbs should converge on almost the same spot. If it's sort of a twisting posture it has, it uh... Doesn't come across very clearly at all.

ALL tails are direct extensions of the spine, and should ideally follow the same "line" as the back, at least to begin with. This one seems to sprout from... Less savoury places.

Curve them lines a little more (especially the torso)! I KNOW it's tricky to do at that scale, but it is most certainly not impossible. In fact, these curves are exactly why i use circles instead of angular shapes, but more on that very soon.

The dog skull looks like this (thank you wikipedia), but i've found it much easier to boil it down to two circles/spheres. Of course, you'll have to vary the circles based on the dog breed, and in case of something like a pug, you probably only need one circle. :v

The rest of the skeleton apparently looks like this (thanks again wikipedia but NOBODY DRAWS THE WHOLE SKELETON FOR GUIDING PURPOSES), so once again, circles to the rescue! ... Ish. Circles are so nice for drawing living things because said living things are almost always round and organic, and many natural forms (such as skulls!) can be either derived or constructed directly from circles and ellipses (and their volumetric cousins). It won't be ENTIRELY realistic at first (or second, or third...), but that's fine, you'll get there, don't worry. The circles are just there to guide you, so if you should want to add things that break the outline then go right ahead. In fact, breaking up the basic shapes is often a good idea to do, and is my own numero uno trick to make my sprites look more complex than they actually are. :v

so basically tl;dr CIRCLES. Here's my take on a low-res dog silhouette which is about the same size as yours.



and oh yes circles



so they work on sprites too

As for things like proportions, that'd be outside my very limited area of knowledge. I just put my faith in the circles. :v

i really hope i don't come off as condescending or pretentious

[heydude6]

To be honest, it looked more like a lamb to me.

[Kot]

Lambs don't have tails like that. I think.

[Cheesecake]

His shoulders are way too low, like they're sloping really steeply.

im bad at drawing bodies. well, at drawing mostly.

Sorry if I came off condescending. If you want to improve your drawings, keep doing what you're doing: drawing. Don't just draw more, draw better; as in, try that picture again, but look for mistakes you think you've made and mistakes others have pointed out, then compare the new one to the old one.

[Trapezohedron]

The trick to making things fit together is to draw a naked skeleton prior to dressing them up.

Drawing circles and lines around where they should be facing is also important. Try getting their proper proportions (a smaller head by barely a half-inch is noticeable and is weird), then drawing perspective, basing on where they might be facing, where the light source is primarily shining, then start drafting around that form. Do not be afraid to tweak, erase and alter portions of your drawing.

[Arx]

Don't let drawing better stop you drawing more, though. Perfect is the enemy of better. Even if they all look like excrement, you'll eventually pick out why they do and be able to fix it.

The trick to making things fit together is to draw a naked skeleton prior to dressing them up.

Sometimes, anyway. I've never been able to hack it. Experiment with different ways of sketching out the basis, and pick the one you like the most.

[Cheesecake]

The skeleton I use for drawing is a simplified version of a real skeleton: an oval with skull-features, a rib cage-shape, a pelvis-shape, and the knees and elbows. Try drawing a skeleton from a picture or anatomy book, the quality of the drawing is immaterial, because it's about learning the proportion of the human body.

And as Arx said, don't let perfectionism get in the way of improvement.

[xaritscin]

i draw skeletons before putting the features. but they are not on proportion most of the time, its just a crude guide for knowing where to tart making the body overline.